As tradition stands, a quick stop over at the Harley-Davidson® dealership Nelspruit, the home base for the Big Five H.O.G. Chapter, gave the riders an opportunity to do some merchandise shopping and for others, a cup of hot coffee and a chocolate muffin which went down extremely well after a wet and windy ride. The Gum Tree Sports Bar in White River was en-route to our Hotel venue and catered us a late lunch.

Nestled among the splendor of the Mpumulanga woodlands overlooking a vast lake the Pine Lake Inn presented a perfect getaway weekend and Rally venue. Our evening was spent playing games, (one of the games much reminded one of the guessing game Battleships) and the zealous wolfing down of a varied buffet of delicious food. Live entertainment was provided and the more energetic danced the floor flat.

FIFA donations

Early morning assembly in the parking lot had the group of Harley owners gathered at 8.30 for a briefing for the planned outride. Riders made way toward the Cradle of Life Game Drives, Accommodation and Restaurant a beautiful, scenic mountain pass route with the purpose of a charity donation of FIFA 2018 World Cup T-Shirts and caps to be handed out to less fortunate members of a rural community.

As the following day’s activity of Finders Keepers required accumulated points, everyone after having dinner grouped into teams. Jubilant participation took place in the general knowledge quiz and points were happily accrued.

Cryptic Clues and Harley Games

Four teams departed from Pine Lake Inn at 9am on our third day of Rally attendance, revving off down the hillside into Hazeyview. Each team was equipped with cryptic clues to decipher the places to visit.
Four locations were designated to solve the riddles and HARD evidence had to be collected as proof.

Snake and Reptile Park. Here the riders had to take selfies with Chilly Boy the Python.

Shautany Chocolatier. (An inhumane way of punishing those on diet).

Elephant Whispers. (Teams had to bring some elephant dung).

Cultural village. (Selfies of the team eating Mopani worms).

With hard evidence in the panniers and selfie portraits as proof of the four locations visited, the teams headed back to White River, stopping off for lunch at Picasso’s Mexican Taqueria. Harley games were well under way by 2pm, sharing loads of fun, laughter and Rider Skills.

Treated with a Candy Land décor our Gala dinner once again consisted of a delicious buffet.

Fund raising was the order of the evening; with HD® apparel sponsored by H-D Johannesburg dealer principal going under the hammer. The auction was conducted by our resident auctioneer Dave Martin, yes, Dave completely stole the show, leaving us in fits of laughter.

Day four bid us the ride back home after breakfast.

In conclusion, Hippo Rally 2018 was most successful, well planned and organized. No doubt our extreme passionate and dedicated events committee what they are doing.